Student: How far can you throw your feet?
Me: Did you just ask how far he can throw his feet?
Student: Yea. You know, like this *kicks leg*
Me: Oh boy.
The wild things say wild things, that I know to be true. Sometimes the phrases they use have me scratching my head, shaking my head, or trying to not choke to death laughing. And sometimes, their wild commentary leads to conversations on how we use our words.
When a student asked a classmate how far he could “throw his feet,” I had just taken a drink of water. Epic mistake on my part. I simultaneously came close to spitting out the water and choking on it. Death by water whilst laughing, that would make quite the obituary post.
Once I was slightly more composed and very much alive, I had to question the student on his terminology choice. To him, it made perfect sense. To the rest of us? Not so much. The majority of the class agreed with me that the image of someone removing his or foot and hurling it across a room was alarming. A few decided the phrase was a clever way of describing a kick.
And then I asked how important our words are. I asked what impact they had on ourselves and others. Then, I asked what words spoken to them had prompted negative images of themselves and the world around them. Which words led them to seeing themselves positively. We talked about careless words and why I hated them cussing so often.
Words have power. Science has proven words can have either a negative or positive effect on us. While I am as fluent in sarcasm as they seemed by be cursing, I hope they heard, more than anything else, how wildly wonderful they are. Because even wild things need to know they are loved, they belong, and they have value.